I'm just learning about controlling motors with micro controllers. I've read up on diodes some, but I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything since there are a lot of bits of information listed and its only economical to order these in large quantities. I'm going to buy a bunch of diodes which I'll mainly use to protect my PIC chips and other sensitive circuitry when using them with transistors to control relays, solenoids, steppers and other inductive loads. I want to get some that are as broadly applicable as possible, and I know this is a very general term, but I want them to be well suited for hobby sizes of motors. I'm looking at this one from mouser datasheet pdf. Is there any thing wrong with it, and if so, what would be a good pick for a beginner wanting to stock up their parts box?

 

1n4148 or 1n914 are good there the same . Good for most small motors and relays

 

Thanks, those look good to me.

 

For larger motors and more current I would recommend a fast recovery rectifier like the MR852

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thanks for the help. while im at it, what kind of transistors are best for the same range of smaller motors and coils? I'm using 2N5307 darlingtons right now, but im not sure they're the best to use on a wide range of applications.

 

The 2n4401 are good for 500mA but I never go over 300mA it's a npn and the 2n4403 is the pnp I make h-bridges with them for small motors and use them to sink seven segment leds the 2N5307 is good for 1 amp I also use a lot of SN754410NE and ULN2803A the SN754410 is a 16 pin pdip haft h-bridges for $1.41 you can't beat it for small motors less then 500mA you can stack 2 and get 1 amp and uln2803a is a Darlington pair theres 8 on the 1 chip and it has the diodes built in and you don't need base resistors